Spicy Watermelon Vegan Sushi

I went to Planta the other day, which is a scrumptious vegan restaurant in Toronto, (I highly recommend it) and one of my favourite dishes that I tried was a watermelon poke. Poke is traditionally a fish dish, but here they used watermelon in a savoury way with umami flavours. The love was real, and the love was deep. I knew I had to create my own savoury watermelon dish, and that dish had to be sushi. Spicy watermelon vegan sushi to be exact.

I love me some veggie sushi but most restaurants only have cucumber or avocado sushi, and that get’s boring real fast. Spicy tuna roll used to be one of my favourites, so seeing watermelon in a savoury way, it clicked immediately for me!

I whipped up a 5 second sauce, dipped in a cube of watermelon and proceeded to devour the whole bowl. YUM. This spicy watermelon vegan sushi is lightly sweet, with a crisp juicy bite. Covered in a creamy, spicy, umami sauce, sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds… um yes please, more please, now please.

To make Spicy Watermelon Vegan Sushi: finely chop the watermelon. This isn’t large watermelon cubes that you would normally munch on, you want these to get all saucy delicious and fit into a sushi roll so keep the chop small.

Mix together the spicy watermelon vegan sushi sauce. Omnomnom. If you like it really spicy, add more sriracha to taste.

At the last minute before rolling your sushi add in the watermelon and toss to combine. The first time I made this I thought it would be a good idea to let the watermelon marinate in the sauce. Wrong. When you let the watermelon sit in the sauce it gets all watery, so toss the watermelon with the sauce just before using in sushi.

To make a sushi roll, with wet hands, thinly spread prepared sushi rice on a sheet of nori, leaving about 2 inches of exposed nori at the top. Fill with watermelon and a sprinkle of sesame seeds. I used both black and white sesame seeds but you can use whatever kind you like.

Carefully roll the sushi up, and when you reach the top, lightly wet the exposed nori with water to help glue the roll closed, then finish rolling. Wet a sharp knife and cut into sushi rounds. If any watermelon falls out, simply push it back in.

To make a hand roll, cut a sheet of nori in half. Cover half of the nori rectangle in a thin layer of prepared sushi rice. Put a small amount of watermelon on an angle on top of the rice. Take the bottom corner of the nori and bring it to the top and roll up. Lightly wet the edge of the nori to help glue to roll closed.

I also love this spicy watermelon vegan sushi served Buddha bowl style. On top of a bed of rice, with a few sheets of nori seaweed snack, some slices of avocado, green onions, and cucumber slices. So fresh and lovely!

In a medium bowl, mix together the vegan mayonnaise, Sriracha, soy sauce, white miso paste, and sesame oil until smooth. At the last minute before rolling your sushi add in the watermelon and toss to combine. The first time I made this I thought it would be a good idea to let the watermelon marinate in the sauce. Wrong. When you do that the watermelon gets all watery making a saucy mess, so toss the watermelon with the sauce just before using in sushi.

To make a sushi roll, with wet hands, thinly spread prepared sushi rice on a sheet of nori, leaving about 2 inches of exposed nori at the top. Fill with watermelon and a sprinkle of sesame seeds. I used both black and white sesame seeds but you can use whatever kind you like. Carefully roll the sushi up, and when you reach the top, lightly wet the exposed nori with water to help glue the roll closed, then finish rolling. Wet a sharp knife and cut into sushi rounds. If any watermelon falls out, simply push it back in.

Recipe Notes

I also love this spicy watermelon vegan sushi served Buddha bowl style. On top of a bed of rice, with a few sheets of nori seaweed snack, some slices of avocado, green onions, and cucumber slices. So fresh and lovely!

Reader Interactions

Comments

Can anything be substituted for the miso paste? I cannot find it here in Small Town Iowa. I do have kelp powder, would that work? Thank you in advance, I love your recipes – tried several and they never disappoint.

So happy you are enjoying my recipes, Rebecca! Miso is pretty key to the flavour in this recipe. You could order it online, or if you want to use your kelp powder you can do that, it will just result in a different flavour and colour. Enjoy!

Déjà vu! Back in June I saw a post by someone in a Facebook group about how they baked watermelon and made sushi with it. My mind was blown at that point! I tried it out and it was eerie how much it resembled tuna. I had plans to try it out a few different ways, but never got around to it. I made a couple of blog posts about my experiment and how I feel it went over well. Some of my testers were blown away – but also a little put off by the sweetness of the watermelon even though I marinated it for over 24 hours, in the end I didn’t bake it long enough or cut it in thick enough pieces because they began to burn beyond recognition. When I find the perfect watermelon I have a hard time sacrificing it to the sushi gods…but maybe a not so sweet one will take one for the team next time. Although, I’ll have to wait until next year because I’m not paying the high price tag for out of season melon.

What if you spread the sauce on top of the rice, and then placed the watermelon pieces, then rolled, instead of trying to mix the watermelon pieces up in the sauce, which seems like it would mush the melon …?

You could definitely do that. In my first round of testing this recipe, I tore up nori sheets and added them to the sauce. It was good, but I don’t love fishy tastes myself, so for me it didn’t need the extra seaweed. But if you like it, go for it! 🙂

I think that I have never in my life ever eaten watermelon other than pure as a sweet, fruity snack and never have I been interested in doing so. Boy, was I wrong! I put this in my Onigirazu (with cucumber, avocado and a splash of lemon juice) today and it was de-li-cous. Thanks for the recipe!

I made this last night and it is absolutely over-the-top delicious!! I’ve been making veggie-style sushi for years and your divine inspiration is, well, truly divine! The sweet, spicy, umami flavors of the watermelon and sriracha sauce are an incredible flavor blast! My husband repeatedly commented on the deliciousness. Thank you for sharing this magical recipe!

Woohoo!!! So thrilled you love it as much as I do, Bev! Since this is a fairly unique recipe, I wasn’t quite sure if others would enjoy it as much as I do, so I am so very happy that you and your husband did! Thanks so much for the lovely comment 🙂

This looks sooo yummy! I’ve seen a few things done with savory versions of watermelon,but none really interested me. This looks so perfect. I’m looking forward to trying it. Also, thanks for the tip on not letting the watermelon marinate for long. I’m sure I would have done exactly that, thinking more flavor! Thanks for something new to try.

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